Ian and I removed the front end struts and wheels, the brake assembly. I removed the brakes so I can work with the minimum spindle size for incorporation into the IOS.Note the dash penetrations, you will not get a look at many insights striped to this level.

In a moment of cheapness, I decided to try and fix the water pump pulley, instead of buying a new one which comes with half the pump.I glued the central metal core to the part of the pulley that was still intact, and after that dried, built up the rest of the pulley with epoxy putty. Since the AC and belt tensioner were also gone, I found some buna-N O-rings that fit nicely in the grooves of the motor output pulley and the water pump pulley. The pulley is not balanced, so it may shake apart? If I can get several minutes of run time, so I can see the condition of the rest of the system, I will be happy, and will break down and buy a new one.

The old radiator from the car was gone except for the short transmission cooler heat exchanger, so I snapped a few photos of the cooler tube.It is a brass double wall tube, which maximizes the heat transfer, since the coolant passes inside and outside the tube, and the transmission fluid passes between the two walls. There is a lot of cool engineering in the Insight that is hidden away so we never get to see it.

Getting closer, the motor, exhaust, ECM,TCM,steering wheel, EPS,Dash display are all mounted. Still a lot to do before the first powerup. The rest of the demos construction will be picked up at;UDHEV The remains of BlueBird1 will wait until I get BlueBird2, and the two will be combined to make a Blue CVT Insight for my dear wife Sue.

Have to get the water pump to run if the demo is to be a working engine, so I figured would take a closer look at the possibility of making it run off a 12 volt motor.The core metal of the pressed on pulley either needs to be removed with a special puller, or I need to machine a new plastic pulley. Will have to ponder that one, I don't want to brake it trying to pull off the rusted pulley.Pump has thermostat and additional oil loop. Nice that it is all o ring seals.

Ok now that I have it all out, I have to try and reconnect everything if I will ever have any hope of getting the thing to work.Thanks to Mike Saboe, I have the correct harness and CVT info so I can continue. No playing pool for a few days.Got the EPS rack off the car so that function is included. This is an interesting cross plug puzzle.

I got the rest of the stuff out of the car. The harness now has to be reconnected to everything before I forget where things went. I also found that the ABS control board cover was gone, and the PC board was damaged. Bummer!